Whatever happened to car clubs putting on matching t-shirts and building a dragster to actually make a few passes at the local track? I see dudes sportin' the club shirts and even trying to be all Bucky Badass in "prospect" shirts at car shows and shit, but I never see them at the track in those shirts, gettin' dirty and gettin' DOWN. Hmmm. Maybe if they spent less time selling "support" t-shirts and more time building a race car, the rest of us wouldn't laugh at them so hard...

Linda Vaughn's shirt of many temperatures

This "LOVE" shirt has to be one of the most famous in all of hotrodding. Probably didn't even know what that screenprint was on Linda Vaughn's t-shirt, right? I mean, hell – it doesn't even matter, but I dig that kind of shit.

I talked to Linda – aka Miss Hurst Golden Shifter – about this photo a few years ago and I didn't get the feeling that she was too happy about doing the shoot, looking back on it. Say what you want, but I'd give my left one to recreate this shoot with her right now. Seriously.

Milodon and the lightness of being

Check this shot of Ron Winkel in his Milodon t-shirt, next to none other than Kent Fuller – builder of the one and only "Magicar." GAWD, this car was bitchin.' And a real game-changer, to boot.

This is probably the mid-Sixties in Southern California...probably around '64 when the Fuller's Magicar first stomped all over everybody at the dragstrips.

That Milodon print on Ron's shirt is about as big as I'd like to ever see a logo on the chest. May be even pushing it a little. Really interesting to me how the dichotomy of a cartoon illustration for a speed parts company spent so much time in the company of a 1400hp mankiller. The speeds and the equipment of the day was a lethal combination and it was kinda REAL SERIOUS when shit went wrong. But hell, if you knew that back then, maybe a little levity was what you needed to be able to do it every weekend. I think that might be part of it.

But I'd kill for an original one of these – racer's coffee stains and all. Ah, if Winkel's shirt could only talk...

Half the shirt can be twice the good

Look on just about any hot rod or underground culture bloggity blog or whatever, and you're gonna come across this goodie. Been posted a million times, so I thought I'd better christen this one with it, too.

Gary Dyer was driving the Grand-Spaulding Dodge Funny Car at the time and there's been some speculation that these mystery twins belonged to a Playboy Bunny he was, uh, "dating" back then. Need to call Gary on that shit.

I'd have to give her the award for "Best Use Of A Dyer's Superchargers T-Shirt," though. Right? Wonder if those bellbottoms completely cover her Nero sandals...

MOON UNIT

Huge-ass logo from pit-to-pit on a shirt at least 4 sizes too big and then repeat the design all over the place till there's no doubt as to which t-shirt company your $12 went to. Who says urban 'street fashion' is anything fucking new?

In 1958, Dean Moon said, and I quote, " Playin' da game be a art, kid..." And by the Sixties, he took his speed shop to the next level with this fine example of branding at what looks like Lions or maybe Riverside. I'm always amazed by the old guys who could say exactly what track it was in the shot with nothing more than this amount of the strip showing.

How many donks you think would be rollin' the old Moon logo if they were still making shirts just like this? Homeez rockin' the gangsta-stroll with one arm inside the sleeve and shit...

Jim's shirt –– no, JIM'S shirt

In the early days of the Funny Car dragster class, major oil companies and shit were getting full-blown into the deal. Jungle Jim Liberman and Jungle Pam Hardy were on the Castrol tip in the days before lawsuits and $50 NHRA tickets and Funny Cars shaped like bars of soap.

I gotta hand it to Castrol for Jim's shirt and Pam's lack thereof. And I'd wear that t-shirt right now if it was available. Why don't these corps get that their old logos are so much better than the mess they've turned into these days? Keep it simple, Jack. I might bring that hair back, too. I've gone drinking with Pam, too. She's still GOT it, man. Seriously.

Andy's T on Andy's Tees and Deez Nutz

Back in the Fifties and Sixties, Jim McLennan (left) and Andy Brizio (right) were a few of the South City Boys who really put the San Francisco Bay Area on the hot rod and drag racing map. We'll get into some of the crazier shit they got themselves into later on.

One of Andy's deals over the years was the "Instant T:" a fiberglas T-bucket kit that could be put together pretty easily and then go hotrodding in. These days, that vintage 'glas is now collectible, if you can find one of those Bucket bodies. He also got into the t-shirt business. Andy's Tees is a pretty big fuckin' deal in the street rod world, but we're not fans of most of the screens-o-many-color messes that they do for The Goodguys street rod association, for example. Hell, I can't blame Andy as much as I can blame the bad taste of those Goodguys guys. Those Goodguys t-shirts are at car shows everywhere, man. And they all suck.

What I really AM a fan of is this early shirt done for, I think, Jim's Champion Speed Shop. Or is it Andy's place? I can't tell from this shot. But it kinda looks like a perfect mix between a Model T hot rod illustration and a t-shirt design. And see, this is where those guys got it so right back then: that screenprint doesn't need to be any larger or smaller than it is here on Jim and Andy. It's a bitchin' shirt that I'm hoping I can find a NOS sample of some day. Bad-Asses, these two are.

A well-fitting Champion Speed Shop t-shirt

(photo: Bob McLennan collection)

This is a great shot of Big Bob Haines in the Kent Fuller chassis-ed Masters & Richter Front Engine Dragster. Probably around 1963 and I'm guessing it's at the Champion Speedway in Brisbane, CA. But what I REALLY dig is that Champion Speed Shop t-shirt on the blonde. A crisp, white, snug t-shirt on a chick in a pencil skirt? Shit, she's probably wearing stacked heels, too.

Probably the best thing Big Bob will see (and smell) that whole day. Bet he remembers that t-shirt, too...